Previous
Chapter 23
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Great Influenza, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Leadership and Crisis
Truth, Free Press, and Propaganda
Science vs. Nature
Education, Research, and Institutions
Summary
Analysis
While Park was working in New York City, Philadelphia was on the verge of collapse. Despite the chaos, Lewis was still there looking for an answer. Taking inspiration from Flexner’s work on meningitis, he looked into the best ways to save lives immediately, using blunt-force methods to make the best of the limited data available.
As with Park and Williams, Lewis also faced challenges when it came to doing good science in less-than-ideal conditions. His approach made the best of his situation, showing how one of the most important qualities of a good researcher is often adaptability.
Themes
Eventually, Lewis passed this blunt-force work onto others who could do it just as well, then concentrated on four tasks for himself. First, he tried to develop an influenza vaccine following the same methods used for polio. Second, his team searched for Pfeiffer’s bacterium. Though he struggled at first, eventually he was able to isolate it. His third and fourth lines of inquiry involved using dye experiments and shifting from trying to kill tuberculosis bacteria to trying to kill pneumococci.
Lewis’s work demonstrates his extraordinary flexibility and adaptability—qualities that are important in research and doubly so during a crisis. He and his team encountered failures, but this was a natural and expected part of the research process. The more important thing is that Lewis continued to be creative about pursuing new lines of investigation.
Themes
Lewis and his lab combined all their knowledge to attempt a vaccine. The first result was promising, though it wasn’t proof—and even if it was, his lab lacked the ability to mass produce. Lewis again passed off his work to others to continue it, so that he could look into a fifth line of inquiry: a serum to cure the disease. This would be trickiest of all, since a serum has to work against a single target, and picking a target is difficult.
As a leader, one of Lewis’s most important skills was to recognize where he was needed and where he could delegate to others. One of the recurring problems with ineffective leaders during the 1918 pandemic (which, in Barry’s assessment, would likely include President Wilson) was that they tried to do too much on their own and didn’t entrust enough to people below them.
Themes
As the target for his serum, Lewis picked Pfeiffer’s B. influenzae. Flexner and a collaborator had already failed to develop a serum for this bacillus that could help humans or even lab animals, but Lewis hoped that perhaps Flexner’s technique was simply faulty. Lewis took a hands-on approach to ensure his technique was immaculate, even cleaning the glassware himself instead of leaving it to technicians (because clean glassware was vital to his experiment). He worked meticulously while society collapsed around him.
Though Lewis’s process was rushed, his methodology still demonstrated many hallmarks of good science. While Lewis was skilled at delegating, he also realized that it was important to oversee certain tasks on his own. His recognition of the importance of little details like sanitized glassware helps to illustrate why he was such an effective scientist.
Themes
Get the entire The Great Influenza LitChart as a printable PDF.
